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In the fall and winter, volume of "The Phoenix", the newsletter of the
Hamilton Chapter, The Parkinson Foundation of Canada there is an excerpt
from the Newsletter of the British Columbia PD Assoc, Sept. 1993...
'Transplant Therapy for Parkinson's Disease' by Barry Snow, MD.  I will
quote only a small part of the article.
 
"A very attractive alternative to fresh fetal tissue is tissue from
cultures..... A number of laboratories, including one in Calgary, are
making promising progress in this area.  Other groups are working on
different strategies whereby a store of dopamine is transplanted in a tiny
capsule into the striatum.  The dopamine diffuses out into the tissue to
stimulate the nerves.  This technique has shown promise in animal
experiments."
 
The Movement Disorder Clinic at UBC "have [PET] scanned fetal transplant
patients from Sweden, Halifax, Florida and California.......We have..seen
fetal transplant patients who have done very well, and patients who have
not....the technique holds great promise, and we are making plans to do
the surgery once the methods are better established."
 
The last two sentences in the article are:  "For the moment, we take our
hats off to the brave folk with Parkinson's disease who participate in
the experiments with fetal transplants.  On the other hand, if we meet a
surgeon who is doing the transplant, it is best to keep our hats firmly on!"